YORK — Sparkling red and green lights illuminate the path around moving reindeer and an eight-foot blow-up snowman.
Small green Christmas tree and peppermint candy lights stand out on a trail that leads to a 10-foot blow-up candy cane with penguins on top. Old-fashioned, colorful bulb lights hang from a Charlie Brown tree and thrift-store Disney character lights adorn a small tree. A hodgepodge of plastic Christmas trees rescued from neighbors’ garages mark points along the trail to stop and gaze at colorful gingerbread houses, lit-up presents and Santa’s chair.
“If it lights up and it’s tacky, I want it,” said Ray Rudy, 62, of York County.
The gaudily decorated backyard in the Running Man subdivision home draws about 100 people — all of whom the Rudys know — each season.
“The adults will walk around and in their eyes you see the kid come out of them,” Rudy said. “They are just like kids again and they will ooh and ah. It’s just a big Christmas card to kind of wish everybody a happy Christmas, happy Hanukkah and happy holidays to all our family, friends and neighbors.”
Rudy is the mastermind behind “the woods,” an area in his backyard that takes up less than a quarter of an acre. During most of the year the area is Rudy’s “man cave,” with lawn furniture, Redskins paraphernalia and a hammock. But during the holiday season he spends two to four hours a day over a two-week period decorating.
His wife, Ann, 59, said the woods decorations grow each year. This year they added a lighted Elmo statue that children adore. Her husband started the project four or five years ago for their grandchildren but now neighbors, friends and their children or grandchildren visit. Adults love it more than the kids, she said.
“In September they will ask me, ‘When are you getting started on the woods, when are you getting started on the woods?'” Rudy said.
“The kids love it because it’s an interactive thing,” Rudy said. “It’s not like they have to see something from afar. I have everything eye level for small children. They could touch this stuff and if they run around or knock down lights — it doesn’t matter. I can stick them back up the next day.”
Rudy said he was going for a “Griswold” theme from the movie “Christmas Vacation.” Comedian Chevy Chase plays a father who tries to decorate his house with an exorbitant amount lights. He runs into numerous obstacles including a relative’s cat that chews on a cord and electricutes itself.
“It has no rhyme or reason,” Rudy said. “It’s just a bunch of lights thrown up everywhere. I did it for the kids.”
Somers can be reached at 757-298-5176.
